1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an information-processing system and in particular to an information-processing system for use in a network which processes information for use by one or more specific applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Advances in the field of application-specific information-processing systems have solved many issues. But problems remain. The present invention solves some of the remaining problems.
An example of a traditional implementation of a network protocol stack includes a hardware-link layer—also called a transport layer—that verifies and delivers packets to a software protocol stack. Each packet is selected based on its frame format and stripped of any frame header that may be present. Each packet is then sent to the appropriate protocol stack and subsequently to the appropriate application.
If the implementation is a single processor implementation, the processor shepherds each packet through each software stack, processing one packet at a time, and queuing other packets for later processing. In a multiple processor implementation, each processor also acts on one packet at a time. Access to shared data structures is carefully serialized, so the total number of packets being processed is limited to the number of processors available.
One example is a TCP packet's handling on a TCP/IP Ethernet network. A hardware network interface card checks and delivers the incoming TCP packet to a software stack. The TCP packet's Ethernet frame header is removed, and the packet is sent to an IP stack. Then its IP header is verified and removed, and the packet is sent to a TCP stack. The packet's TCP header is verified and removed, and the packet's data is sent to an application. This process is used in many embedded devices.